The Second Book of the Tenth Kingdom
by AngelofPrey
Summary: King Wendell has been kidnapped, a mysterious letter has thrown Wolf and Virginia's relationship into turmoil, and the Nine Kingdoms are in peril... again. And once again it is up to Tony, Virginia and Wolf to unravel the mystery of the King's disappearence. Romance, intruigue, and suspence abound in this fan-made second installation to the stories of the Ten Kingdoms.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING… NOT THE 10****TH**** KINGDOM, WOLF, VIRGINIA, WENDELL, TONY, ANYBODY… EXCEPT JORDANNA AND THE LADY WITH THE BLACK HAIR.**

Prologue: Child's Play

"One…. Two… Three…"

The Prince's voice rang clearly throughout the gardens as the girl dashed along the beds of flowers and bushes. Her lightly shod feet pounded the soft dirt and she giggled playfully as she fled.

"Four… Five… Seven…"

"I heard that Wendell!" the girl cried, stopping in the tracks to shout back at him

"Fine, fine! Six… Seven…"

The girl smiled slightly then continued to run again, diving beneath a bush covered in thorns and vines. Wendell could never find her here! He was too snobbish to get on all fours like a dog to crawl in and find her!

Prince Wendell Walter Winceton White couldn't believe that he'd let Jordanna talk him into playing hide-and-go-seek, on his birthday no less. The seven-year-old king-to-be was posh and spoiled, something Wendell himself would never admit until fourteen years later. But for some reason Jordanna had always been his best friend and put up with him.

Jordanna was an orphan, a kitchen rat in reality, who was only employed by the court-jester since she was a shape-shifter and could help entertain the king and queen. Wendell's grandmother, Snow White, had taken pity on the poor girl and bought her off the jester to become Wendell's playmate. They'd been inseparable ever since. The golden-haired prince, being royalty and not really having any real friends was delighted to have Jordanna and appreciated her company far more than he'd _ever_ let on.

"Ninety-nine… One-Hundred! Ready or not, here I come!" Wendell set off in the direction he had heard her voice come from when he had cheated. This cheating had been a trick to trap her that he had learned hunting with his father. "Trick your prey into revealing their location, and they're as good as dinner." His father had said.

He made his way through the garden and to about where Jordanna was hiding when suddenly from out of nowhere came on of the palace servants.

"Prince Wendell? Prince Wendell!" he called in an annoyingly pompous way.

"Yes?" Jordanna heard the Prince reply, "What is it?"

"Your parents request that you come right away… they said it was urgent."

"I'll be right there!" he called back, "Jordanna!" He whispered to the bush Jordanna was hiding in. "Come on something is up!"

With that the Prince sped off back to the castle. Jordanna meanwhile had the horrible task of getting out of the bush. Once untangled from the bush, she inspected the damage to her dress, several tears had developed and the hem was hanging off it dangerously low. Then she too sped off towards the castle hiking up her skirt to keep from tripping over the loose hem.

While dashing through the garden Jordanna did not see a root that was sticking up out of the ground, and promptly tripped over it, hitting the ground with an "Oof!" As she rose and dusted herself off she heard voices from over the wall of the garden. Being a curious being she jumped into the air and before her feet struck the earth again she had taken wing as a small yellow bird, and she flew up to the top of the wall to listen.

"Here is the toad the King ordered sir, I guarantee you, he will serve you well…" A female voice said.

"Thank you my lady," replied a servant, different from the one who had called in Wendell. "The King and Queen will be quite pleased. I'm sure your business will be even more profitable when you tell your customers you helped to fortify the castle of the Fourth Kingdom."

"Yes… they will be delighted I'm sure." She said with almost a hiss.

"Good day to you my lady, safe travels back to the Third Kingdom…"

"Good day." The servant bowed and holding the parcel that the woman had delivered closed the small door into the castle.

Jordanna couldn't look away from this woman; she had the longest, blackest hair Jordanna had ever seen. It was all beautifully piled on top of her head and was held by an ornate silver cage. After the servant closed the door the woman raised the hood to her black-velvet cloak so it draped gracefully over her hair. She outstretched one delicate porcelain arm and a raven perched itself on one black-gloved hand, cawing harshly.

"Yes Ambrosia…" she whispered, "Someday, we will live in this castle, and the House of White will be nothing more than toads…"

As she spoke the woman's eyes moved to Jordanna and as their eyes locked Jordanna's heart rate increased a hundred fold. It pounded so hard it hurt. Jordanna wanted to rip her eyes away from this terrible woman but she couldn't she was paralyzed, and still her heart beat faster. Jordanna would dream of this woman's eyes for the rest of her life, dream of them in nightmares.

Finally the woman blinked and Jordanna ripped her eyes away and began to stumble over to the edge of the wall on her tiny bird feet. Her vision had begun to tunnel as she reached the edge of the wall. Over she plummeted using the last of her strength to turn back. Everything went black before she hit the ground.

It had only been a few foot fall but Jordanna still hurt all over when she woke. Jordanna sat up, and then stood slowly, rubbing the back of her neck. But as she made her way back inside the castle, she couldn't seem to remember what she was doing on top of the wall in the first place, or what had been so important that she just had to tell Wendell right away. Well, it couldn't have been _that_ important for her to forget so easily… she thought uneasily.

Upon entering the castle what greeted her was a sober sight. The great Snow White in all her glory was standing before her crying grandson Wendell.

"Don't cry Wendell," Snow White said softly, "you will meet me again, though I will never return…" With that she hugged Wendell tightly, then the King and Queen, then she bade farewell to the servants and made her way to the door, there was not a dry eye in the room, save for Jordanna who still had no idea what was going on.

As Snow White passed Jordanna on the way out she stopped looked down at the puzzled girl, reached out a hand to touch her cheek and said, "Take care of him Jordanna… because no one else can…" Then Snow White left, and never returned.

**A/N: So I hope you enjoyed the prologue. The first chapter should be up shortly. Please review, your ideas, comments, criticism, everything is appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Tenth Kingdom or any of its characters. **

Chapter 1: Another Crisis in the Kingdoms

Jordanna woke with a start, clutching her bed-sheets and breathing heavily. Those eyes… those terrible, terrible eyes, yet she could never remember the color of them. Jordanna had dreamed again of the day Snow White had left the Fourth Kingdom, that was a little over fourteen years ago now. Wendell was king now, young though he may still be; twenty-one in fact. Jordanna was the same age, and still lived in the palace as a lady in the court.

Jordanna sighed then climbed out of bed, wincing as her bare feet hit the cold wood floors. Jordanna was a tall girl, about an inch or so shorter than Wendell, and she had grown to be very beautiful. She had porcelain white skin, raven black hair, and violet-blue eyes, after out-growing her awkward stages as a child and teenager.

After washing her face briefly in a basin of water that stood on her night-table Jordanna dressed and made her way out of her room. Her room was big and comfortable, much like any of the other apartments in the palace, with two adjoining rooms, one with a bed, the other a sort of personal room, and a large walk-in closet that served as a dressing room. It was elegantly furnished like the rest of the palace but Jordanna wished the servants would let her decorate it herself, but they feared she would ruin it.

Jordanna entered the long hallways of the palace as usual bare-footed and made her way down to a room with a long table and large windows and shelves upon shelves of books where she, Tony Lewis, and King Wendell usually took their breakfast.

Tony Lewis was a very different man from any Jordanna had ever met before, possibly because he came from a different dimension. She'd grown to know him after he, his daughter, and a Wolf had saved the Nine Kingdoms from Wendell's evil step-mother. He was a middle-aged man, apparently he had been married to the evil-queen at one time and thus his daughter Virginia came into being, at least that's what she had gathered form Wendell's stories. Wendell had been a dog for most of the time and couldn't remember much of the end of his time as a dog. But Tony, or "Antony" as Wendell addressed him, had proved himself as an engineer and toy maker in the Nine Kingdoms by spreading a collection of toddler carriages called "Bouncy-castles." Jordanna in particular thought she would have loved them as a toddler.

"Good morning Antony." Jordanna said in her usual sing-song manner as she entered the room and sat down at the table.

"Good morning Jordanna," Tony replied looking up from his newspaper, "There's a festival going on in Beantown you know… You wouldn't believe what it's for…"

"The one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of Mayor Jack's climbing of the bean stalk." She said matter of factly spreading butter and jam on her toast.

"How'd you know that?" Tony asked, genuinely amazed.

"You forget Tony these events are history for us, and I've had to study history extensively. Ask me something that happened one-hundred-fifty years ago in your world and I wouldn't know where to even start looking." She smiled and bit into her toast.

"I still can't believe I've been here for almost six months… I wonder how Virginia and Wolf are getting along… you know he said something to me just before he left that I can't help but be worried about…"

"And what was that?" she said flatly taking a sip of tea.

"He said, 'See you around, grandpa.'"

Jordanna promptly spewed her tea across the room in a very un-lady-like fashion.

Coughing she managed to croak, "Are you saying that he and Virginia are going to have a baby?"

Jordanna had only met them twice but from what she'd heard from Tony and Wendell of Wolf and Virginia she thought they were very good people she could easily get along with, and more importantly that they were destined for each other. So she meant her last statement as more of, should I start being happy, or is this just a rumor?

"Well… I think they are. Do you think that's a bad thing?" Tony asked.

"No, not at all… I just, I wish them all the happiness in the world. Are they married?"

It was Tony's turn to spew liquid across the room, his coffee this time. "Well Jordanna," he started, "They weren't when I last saw them."

"Oh!" was all Jordanna could manage. With that they dropped the subject and went back to their breakfast. "Where is Wendell?" Jordanna inquired after about a half-an-hour.

"I don't know." Tony added looking around, "He should be up by now, it isn't like him to stay in bed so late…"

"I will go check on him." Jordanna said standing and leaving the room. She walked from the breakfast room to Wendell's apartments and knocked. "Wendell, it's Jordanna, may I come in?" There was no answer.

She knocked again, "Wendell? Are you alright? Can you hear me?" She waited and there was still no answer. Finally she resolved to go in whether he was decent or not…

She turned the handle and let herself in, the room was dark. All of the drapes were still closed and the great bed in the center of the room was still full of a sleeper.

"Wendell are you still a-bed at this hour?" she said teasingly. Not hearing any sound from him she moved forward a little. "Wendell? Are you alright?" she moved up to his bed and saw a form curled up under the covers, the head hidden from view.

Jordanna pulled back the covers but Wendell didn't move, his head was still hidden by the pillow so she moved it. In place of the King's golden-blonde curls there was a dark haired man, with pale skin and hollow eyes. Jordanna screamed, this man was dead.

After gathering her wits she ran down through the palace to Tony and told him what she had found, they told his advisors, and chiefs of security and other officials. Soon the gossip had spread to the entire castle, and within five minutes the surrounding villages knew, within ten minutes the entire Fourth Kingdom knew, and within twenty-three and a half minutes all of the Nine Kingdoms knew, and were all seeking confirmation.

Jordanna sat with Tony and several of Wendell's advisors in the breakfast room. She had her head in her hands and was rocking back and forth trying to decide what to do.

"We need to search his room for evidence!" Tony said, "That's how all the detectives on Law and Order did it!"

"Law and what?" Jordanna groaned from between her hands.

"You know Law and Order the T.V.—never mind." He waved it off, "But we need to see if there is anything in Wendell's room that will explain what happened to him."

"We know what happened to him Lord Antony," said one of the advisors, "He was kidnapped!"

"Yes Lord Calvin but what Lord Antony means is we have to look for signs of what happened when he was kidnapped, or where they might have taken him, or a ransom note, something that will help us get him back." said Jordanna. "Come Tony, Lord Advisors, let us look for clues."

After scouring the room for a half an hour and discovering nothing one of the lords finally noticed the ransom note stuck to the wall with a dagger. After reading it several times over he said, "My dear lords… I believe I've found something!"

Everyone crowded around the man to listen to him read it, when he finished there was silence.

"We need help…" Jordanna said.

Tony nodded, "Yeah, but who?"

"Whom Tony, but whom…"

"Really?"

"What about the other two who saved the Fourth Kingdom before, surely they could help!" interrupted Lord Calvin before Jordanna could explain the usage of who and whom.

Jordanna and Tony looked at each other, she shrugged. "Well I don't know…" said Tony rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't think I'm quite cleared for robbery yet…"

"Then I'll go and get them… it couldn't be that hard... how many people live in your city—what was it called? New York?"

"A little over eight million…" he replied.

"Oh… well then… I'd better get started!"

Jordanna spend the next few hours preparing for her trip, packing supplies and such, and being coached by Tony on how to act, and everything a person from the Kingdoms needed to know about the "real world."

"It's a dangerous place Jordanna… You've got to be careful!" Tony warned her for the eight-hundredth time that hour. They were standing in the room the traveling mirror was kept in. Several servants were untying cords and sheets from around it and activating the secret switch opening the portal between worlds.

"Don't worry Tony," Jordanna said putting a hand on his cheek, "I'll be fine I promise you!"

Jordanna then turned and stepped into the portal and was transported for the first time to Central Park. Through the mirrors she tumbled until it spit her out on the other side.

Jordanna looked around curiously, she had been expecting something strange, but this was a forest like any other! Then she looked up and gasped, buildings upon buildings towered into the sky, like beanstalks!

"Oh my…" she breathed, 'Maybe Tony was right, this place is dangerous! But I've still got to find Virginia and Wolf.'

Jordanna set off through the park and eventually found her way onto one of the paths that led her to the street, and Jordana was thankful of the strange clothing that Tony had insisted she wear to blend in.

"Excuse me!" she said, going up to a man working a hot-dog stand.

"Yeah lady, what can I do for you?"

"Well I was wondering if you could tell me where Apartment 2006, Number 2, East 81st Street, is located."

The man looked at her like she had two heads, before gesturing vaguely behind him.

"The corner of East and 81st is that way."

"Thank you, kindly." Jordana said setting off in that direction.

It was a long while before Jordanna found her way to the corner of East and 81st, and even longer before she figured out how to cross the street, but when she had finally managed that finding the apartment building she was looking for was a much simpler task.

Stepping into the building she was greeted by a man behind a high desk.

"Can I help you, miss?" he asked politely.

"Yes, I'm looking for a Virginia Lewis?"

"Oh, you mean Mrs. Wolfson, she lives on the eighth floor, apartment number 2006."

"Thank you kindly, sir." Jordanna replied, and turned to go, but then remembered she had no idea where the stairs were. "Um, sir if you don't mind. Could you tell me where the stairs are located?"

The man looked at her like she had three heads, "You mean you're not going to take the elevator?"

"Elevator?" Jordanna asked puzzled.

The man just stared at her then pointed to the stair well and said, "They're over there, miss…"

Jordanna smiled, thanked the man, and made her way up to the eighth floor. Upon reaching her destination she found apartment 2006 and knocked three times.

It was a pregnant Virginia who opened the door, and promptly tried to strangle her.

**A/N: Mwhahahaha… poor Wendie… Don't worry, all will be explained… most of it in the next chapter. Review please, comments, ideas, critique is all greatly appreciated. **

**Also I think I'm going to be having shorter chapters with this story… that's just the way it's turning out so far, but that also means there will be more of them. I hope that equals "yay!".**


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own the Tenth Kingdom, or any of its characters.

Chapter 2: Happily Ever After Didn't Last As Long As We'd Hoped

My name is Virginia Lewis… well it was until five months ago…

Now my name is Virginia Wolfson. And I live on the edge of the forest.

Well not really, my dad and I used to live in this apartment across from Central Park, but somewhere in the middle of Central Park there's this mirror, well it's the back of a mirror, and it's a portal to this alternate dimension where fairy tales are true.

Sounds crazy I know. Seven months ago I wouldn't have believed it either, but a lot has happened in those seven months, including me marrying my current husband. However, if the next five minutes go as planned he won't be my husband for much longer…

You see my dad and I got pulled into this wild adventure by this dog, who wasn't really a dog, but a Prince who got turned into a dog, because his step-mother, my long lost mother, wanted to take over his kingdom. If you think that's a lot for you to handle, think about how I felt…

But anyway, we helped restore him to his throne, saved the Nine Kingdoms and I ended up finding the man of my dreams in our traveling companion, Wolf. Wolf is well, half-wolf and has a bit of a P.M.S. issue around the full moon, but somehow he got me to fall in love with him, and then he got me pregnant. So I married him five months ago, and we opened a little restaurant together. Wolf also runs a dog-training business on the side. Then he started cheating on me. I don't know how this always happens, maybe I'm a glutton for misery, but Wolf was in for the surprise of his life, except for maybe me falling in love with him in the first place, but no one cheats on me and gets away with it!

I found out about his behavior because I intercepted a love letter that day from his mistress.

"_My Dearest Warren,_" it read, Warren is the name Wolf uses for work and such.

"_I just can't wait to see you again! I will be in New York again soon, and the first thing I'll do is come straight to your place, and you can huff and puff, and blow all my clothes off!_

_Don't worry; I'll make sure to see that Virginia isn't home before I come up. See you soon you big bad wolf you! Love always, Rosaleen XOXO_"

I'd never been so heartbroken in my life. I couldn't bring myself to open the restaurant feeling the way I did, and instead spent the entire day with my head under the covers and wishing that there was some mistake. But the letter was pretty unmistakable. Eventually I mustered up enough energy to be angry, and decided to confront him about it the minute he walked in the door. Wolf was out on his dog-training circuit and should've been home already. Suddenly there was a knock at my door and as I looked out the peep-hole but the person I saw wasn't Wolf, it was a woman.

I couldn't help myself, I ripped open the door and grabbed the girl by the collar, pulling her inside and slamming the door closed behind us. Still holding on to her I shouted, "You dirty tramp! Bet you thought I wouldn't find out!"

"Virginia! Virginia!" The woman cried. "Virginia, it's me… Jordanna! Wendell is in danger, we need your help! And I'm sorry for whatever it is that I've done!"

My eyes went wide with realization and I let her go, my hands immediately went to my mouth. "Oh my god!" I said, "Jordanna, I'm so sorry!"

Jordanna looked up at me from the floor and through coughs nodded her head that it was alright.

"Can I get you anything? Coffee, scotch, anything?" I felt horrible, I had just attempted to strangle the Prince's –excuse me, King's, best friend.

"No I'm fine." She wheezed, "Well, maybe a glass of water…"

I hurried to the small kitchenette and got water from the tap and quickly brought it back to Jordanna who gulped the liquid down in one breath.

"Just out of curiosity," Jordanna began after beginning to catch her breath again, "who did you think I was?"

I hesitated for a moment, then said, "Wolf's mistress…"

Jordanna's eyes went wide, "What?" she cried.

"I found this love-letter today from some lady to Wolf." I quickly retrieved the letter and brought it to Jordanna who read it over carefully.

"Lady Virginia," she began, "perhaps you are mistaken? This is addressed to a Warren Wolfson..."

"That's Wolf's name here, it's to him, trust me. And forget the 'my lady' stuff it's too formal for someone like me."

"But you're Wendell's step-sister; technically the heir to the throne should Wendell not have a child."

"Well, I'm not queen yet, so don't call me 'my lady' until I am, alright?"

"Yes my la—Virginia…"

"Now you said you were here because Wendell needed our help. What sort of danger has he gotten himself into this time?" I asked.

"Well," Jordanna began. "This morning your father and I came to discover that Wendell had gone missing, kidnapped in fact. His kidnapper left a note…"

Jordanna produced a piece of parchment where a scrolling hand had left a cryptic message in violet ink.

"_Dearest citizens of the Nine Kingdoms, _

_King Wendell has been kidnapped, and unless you do as I command he will end his life as a frog. Firstly, I want the Fourth Kingdom to be passed over to me. The other eight kingdoms may live on in peace until I decide otherwise. Also, I want three million gold Wendells presented to me as tribute by the other eight kingdoms on the night of my coronation. My name is Lady Rosaleen, you may know me as the toad supplier of the Nine Kingdoms. Do try and keep this hush hush, don't want to poor peasants scaring do we? And before anyone thinks of performing any thrilling heroics, the only person who could have stopped me has been dead for years, she can't save you now, nor can the heroic four who have usurped and murdered the true queen of the Fourth Kingdom!_

_Forever your Queen,_

_Rosaleen"_

"So you see Virginia? We need your help, both you and Wolf together!" Jordanna pleaded.

I stared at the letter and then to the love-letter on the table, my fingers trembling a little.

"Jordanna, this is bad, this is very bad…"

"Virginia, are you alright?"

"No, Jordanna, look, look at the signature on both of these letters…"

She did, and the same expression of realization and disgust I had on my face hung over hers.

"Wolf's mistress is…"

"Lady Rosaleen!" I finished for her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Warren Wolfson best referred to as Wolf was the dashing, romantic, and slightly animal husband of Virginia Lewis. He had been in love with her since he first met her, "wolfies" being some of the only creatures where love-at-first-sight can legitimately occur. He had bushy black hair, and grey-blue eyes which sometimes turned golden when Wolf acted especially wolf-like. He was tall, though not as tall as Tony Lewis, and he did once try to eat Virginia's grandmother but Virginia forgave him for that. Although, they're still not quite sure whether or not her grandmother had forgiven him, the first time Wolf went over to her house for dinner, he and Virginia had to restrain the old lady from calling the police, calming her down by claiming Wolf was on a medication that had some very bad side-effects on his personality, but was fine now. Wolf then turned up the charm again and the rest of the night went relatively smoothly.

Wolf couldn't help but run a little faster at the thought of getting home to his beautiful Virginia. He was on his way home from his side-job and since he preferred to use modes of transportation he was familiar with, he usually ran everywhere. Home was a small apartment over-looking central park; somehow the landlord was still under the magic-bean's spell and was thus delighted to have Virginia back in the building. Although it had gotten a little annoying being asked when "master" was coming home. There wasn't much left in the apartment, their T.V. having been smashed by Burly the Troll and most of the rest of the room had been in shambles as well, and since they had just opened a restaurant they still didn't have enough money in the bank to buy furniture, but business was doing well so they expected to be able to have a nicely furnished apartment soon.

To Wolf, Virginia was the most beautiful woman who had ever lived, even considering Snow White, and Cinderella. She had pale skin, which generally had a healthy rose-like flush to it, she also had striking blue eyes, and "soft, creamy" lips as Wolf liked to say. Due to a previous encounter with Wolf and a magic axe, Virginia also had a very short haircut, shorter than Wolf's.

Wolf felt his tail wag a little in the seat of his pants, and noticed his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth as he ran. He quickly stopped this behavior and scratched his head as was his habit and continued to run.

He ran through Central Park which was a beautiful palate of color that time of autumn. He ran past the place he and Virginia had come out of the mirror about five months ago and stopped short when he noticed a strange shimmering coming from the mirror's location.

"Well that's odd…" he said moving closer to it. "Huff-puff, did someone really leave it on by mistake?"

Wolf thought for a minute knowing that Virginia would worry if he was late, but surely she'd understand that the travelling mirror shouldn't be left on like that, so he stepped through, and came out in the large room where the mirror was being kept, but no one was in sight.

"Hello?" he called moving through the castle. "Wendy? Tony? Lady Jordanna? Hello? Is there anyone home?"

"Sir, may I enquire as to what you're doing in the castle?" A voice said behind him.

Wolf turned and looked an unhappy servant in the face. The servant immediately recognized Wolf and began a long string of apologies.

"I'm sorry sir! I did not recognize you from behind! May I be of some assistance to you?"

"Yes, you can. You see I just stumbled through the travelling mirror from the other side and was wondering why Wendell left it open?" Wolf said.

"Have you not heard sir?" the servant replied.

"Heard what?"

"Why that Wendell has been kidnapped! Surely you got the news, Lady Jordanna went through the portal just today to find you and Lady Virginia. I assume that's why the mirror was left open, so that you three could return."

Wolf was taken aback. "Thank you." He said, and then began to stumble back to the Mirror room.

"Where are you going sir? Will you not help us?" the servant cried.

"I will!" Wolf called back, "but I have to go get Virginia, and find Jordanna!"

Wolf didn't stop running and charged full-speed through the mirror, and kept on going until he got up the stairs to his apartment. After fumbling with the keys to the door he finally got in.

"Virginia!" he cried, "Virginia! Wendell's in danger!" Wolf only had a brief second to look at the stunned looks he was getting from Virginia and Jordanna before he was being attacked by his wife.

Okay, so I over reacted a little when I saw him. Actually I over reacted a lot. But he just barged right in and muttered something about Wendell being in danger. So I didn't really have the time I needed to put my thoughts together before I acted. Maybe I was taking Snow White's advice a little too seriously. I wasn't thinking, I just became. Or perhaps it had to do with me being hormonal and five-months pregnant?

After strangling Wolf a little, Jordanna pulled me off him. It's a little embarrassing to say but I had him pinned against the wall for a second, the look on Wolf's face would have been comical if taken out of context. It was somewhere between terror and utter shock.

The first words out of his mouth were, "I'm sorry Virginia! I don't know what I've done, but I'm sorry!"

"Sorry isn't going to help!" I yelled back. "You thought I wouldn't find out about her did you? You're cheating on me!"

Wolf looked genuinely confused, "What? Virginia I'm not cheating on you, I love you! Wolves mate for life, I'd never dream of loving another woman!"

"Liar!" I shrieked and went at him again, this time Jordanna was prepared to hold me back.

"Please Lady Virginia, we need both of you _**alive**_ to help save Wendell!"

I stopped then thought about what Wolf had said. "Wait a second," I started, "How did Wolf know Wendell was in trouble? Unless he heard it from his mistress Lady Rosaleen! Aha! Caught you red handed!"

"Lady who?" Wolf looked like he did the day he was to be burned at the stake for the murder of Sally Peep, completely and utterly innocent.

"Lady Rosaleen, your mistress. Stop acting Wolf, the cat's out of the bag." I said.

'Wait a second,' I thought, something very important had just occurred to me. 'Wolf's horrible at lying… so therefore he has to be telling the truth… but what about this letter?' I looked at the letter in my hand until Wolf's pleas brought me out of my thoughts.

"Please Virginia!" he said, "You have to believe me! I have no idea who she is! I found out about Wendell because coming home tonight I stumbled upon the portal which was open. So I thought 'this is odd' and decided to go through and ask about it. When I got through to the other side there was no one there so I wandered around until a servant stopped me and told me that Jordanna had come through to fetch us. Then I came straight home to tell you, I swear it Virginia!" He whined a little, the look on his face showed he was clearly distressed by this turn of events.

"Lady Virginia… Sir Wolf…" Jordanna piped in hesitantly. "If you would, can I please have your answer? Will you help the kingdoms or not?"

Wolf and I glanced at each other uneasily until I sighed and said, "Yes, we'll help you."

Jordanna smiled broadly and took one of our hands in each of hers, "Thank you so much! You truly are the four who saved the Nine Kingdoms! I'm sure your little… ahem, problem will work its way out soon! The Kingdoms has a way of making everything work out alright in the end!"

We took a moment to go around the mostly-empty apartment and collected any clothes food, and supplies we could think of needing and put them in a backpack. Once we had everything ready I left a note at the restaurant for the staff saying that Wolf and I needed a vacation to "reconnect," and that we should be back in a few weeks.

Jordanna was the first one back through the portal. As she disappeared Wolf and I looked at each other still feeling the tension from my earlier accusations.

"Ladies first." Wolf offered bowing slightly; I huffed out of frustration and stepped through the mirror.

Wolf watched her disappear then inhaled and exhaled slowly and stepped through the mirror and back into the Nine Kingdoms.

A/N: Okay so this is the longest chapter so far… wh00t! And I decided to write this alternating between third person and Virginia's point of view if you couldn't already tell. It will always be marked by a row of Xs so it'll be easy to figure out when perspective changes. I haven't decided yet but I may throw in a few other points of view too, like Jordanna, Wolf, Tony… Anyway… Third chapter probably won't be up for a little while. I still have to outline it and I want to finish a couple chapters for my other fics before I work on this one a little more… Expect it in a couple of weeks depending on how much writer's block I get. Please Review, comments/criticism/ideas/anything is much appreciated.


	4. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Tenth Kingdom, or its characters.

Chapter 3: These are Dark Days

A part of me always knew we would return to the Nine Kingdoms, I just never imagined it'd be this soon. As the final portal seemed to shatter around me and I was drawn into a large room of the royal castle I felt a wave of homesickness over take me. Not for New York or any place in particular, but for my dad.

We had lived together constantly for the last eighteen years… so being without him for the last five months was rough. Especially while being pregnant, he didn't even know!

This was something about to change very soon…

"Virginia! I'm so glad you made it!" My dad said rushing forward to greet us. He stopped short suddenly, his eyes resting on the lump in my belly. "Virginia your… Are you… is that?" He stammered pointing.

"Yes Dad… I'm pregnant!" I smiled happily, or tried to anyway.

"W… wo….wol… w….wol?" Dad couldn't seem to get the word out of his mouth.

"Yes Dad, Wolf is the father…" I said slowly.

By this time Wolf had come crashing through and grinned broadly and put his arm around Dad's shoulders. "So Grandpa… how does it feel? Aren't you happy for us?"

Dad winced under the close contact with the man who had impregnated his daughter. "Well… I'm sure happiness is in there somewhere…" he pulled away from Wolf and took my hands, "Virginia are you two…"

"Yes Dad, we got married when we got back…"

"Oh good—wait, you didn't wait for me to give you away!" He shouted.

"No Dad, we're just legally married, we haven't had a ceremony yet. We haven't decided where to have it…" Honestly I didn't know if I even wanted a ceremony anymore, I thought I might want a divorce after everything that had happened today.

"Well, I guess I'm happy for you then…" Dad stopped for a minute looking into his my eyes, then it dawned on him. "I'm gonna be a grandpa… I'm gonna be a grandpa!" He rushed away from me and ran down the corridors telling everyone he met the wonderful news that I was pregnant. Jordanna watched him go and giggled discreetly.

I sighed at his enthusiasm and wished this happy event wasn't quite so overshadowed by so many other problems.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Before we knew it we found ourselves in a meeting of the Royal Council, debating on what should be done in response to Wendell's kidnapping.

No, literally, we spent the first three hours of the meeting with the Royal Council debating about what should be done, until Wolf piped up.

"Look guys, I'm really sorry to interrupt but I have an idea: maybe we should go and find him?" At this point my head had been lying on my arm on the table for about a half an hour, I was bored out of my mind. The relief I felt was immense, when the lords all looked at each other and said:

"What a splendid, idea… let us decide who will go after him after lunch, shall we?"

The meeting started up again after a forty-five minute break and lasted another three.

"So my lords," the speaker of the council began. "Let us now nominate who we think would be best to go and rescue our good King Wendell. Any one?"

I raised my hand.

"Yes, Lady Virginia, who would you like to nominate."

"Wolf, my dad, and myself."

"And me!" Jordana piped up.

"Yes, and Jordana." I added.

The lords all looked at each other and murmured to one another.

"Well, what say you my lords?" the speaker of the council asked.

After two minutes of talking amongst themselves someone stood up.

"The Royal Council thinks that Lady Virginia's nomination is a good idea, and several members have volunteered to finance their journey."

"Well…" the council speaker said, "There you have it! Lady Virginia, Lord Antony, Sir Wolf, and Lady Jordana will leave as soon as possible on a rescue mission for our missing King Wendell! I hereby dismiss this meeting of the Royal Council… just in time for tea!"

With that the gavel was struck, and the Lords filed out of the council room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

We left the next day.

Dad had tried to convince the lords to keep our mission discreet, but I don't think it worked very well.

As we stepped out into the morning light a path opened for us through a large crowd of people all cheering us and waving the official flag of the Fourth Kingdom.

"Well, so much for being discreet…" Wolf whispered to us.

The crowd followed behind us all the way to the outskirts of the village and part-way through the forest, cheering the entire way. Finally they left us in peace and we had started on our second quest through the Nine Kingdoms.

A/N: Okay… I am really really really really really really times infinity sorry for the ridiculously long hiatus… what has it been? A year since I updated? Anyway, no worries I never abandon my stories so I may take a while to write stuff, but I will never quit completely.

Edit: So I've gone back and reread some of my chapters which were written in 2008… and oh my god did they need to be edited. So I've done a quick edit of all of them and re-uploaded everything so the story will make more sense, and flow slightly better.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: River Journey

I really wish I could say the next part of our journey was smooth sailing, when we set out it really did seem easy, all we had to do was find someone who had bought frogs from Lady Rosaleen and get her address from them.

But, things never really happen the way we want them to, do they?

We had tracked down one of Lady Rosaleen's contacts to a small village near Wendell's castle; he was a salesman, whose shop sold magical animals and trinkets.

When we entered the shop the first thing I noticed was the noise, cats, bats, dogs, and frogs, gerbils, and hamsters, guinea pigs, and roosters all making such a cacophony that it was hard to hear myself think, I'm pretty sure I heard a horse whiny from somewhere in the back as well. I did however, make note of the aquariums lining one wall that held magical reptiles and amphibians, including one tank full of frogs. Wolf had made a bee-line straight for a corral full of rabbits, and was stroking their fur and eyeing them hungrily. I frowned at him, and he made his eyes look huge and innocent, feigning he didn't know why I was suspicious.

Upon hearing the bell on the door ring, god knows how over the racket, a little old man came out of a dark back room and stepped up to a counter on which an old-fashioned till sat waiting to collect a fee.

"Can I help you?" He asked in a little quavering voice, and proceeded to smack his chapped lips and run his tongue over his toothless gums.

"Yes, we'd like to enquire about your frogs." Jordana said sweetly, stepping forward.

The man nodded. "Oh yes, I have plenty of those. Frogs for fly-hunting, and pest control, guard frogs, water frogs, wood frogs, shoe frogs, any sort of frog you're after I'm sure to have it…"

"No, you don't understand, we need to ask you about where you get your frogs." Dad interjected.

"Oh… so you're not looking to buy anything then?" The man visibly deflated, and I quickly scanned the shelves closest to me for anything that might strike my fancy, a small silver-link charm bracelet caught my eye and I took it off the shelf.

"Well, I'd be interested in purchasing this," I said holding up the bracelet. "If you'd answer our questions…"

The man smacked his lips together again while he considered. "Very well, my frogs are provided by a woman who goes by the name of Lady Rosaleen."

We all grinned at our apparent good fortune.

"Do you know where to find her?" I asked.

The man looked uncomfortable. "Erm… Well, no, not exactly. You see she has this rather peculiar knack for showing up exactly when you need her… an hour or so after I've sold my last frog, she will appear, to sell me some more. I've been buying from her for years, and you know, she never looks a day older! She still has raven-black hair and a pretty a bottom as you ever see on a woman!"

I cringed a little; this was not something I particularly wanted to hear about the woman who had kidnapped Wendell.

"Any idea of anyone who does know where she lives?" Dad asked.

"No, a few other people in the village buy from her as well, but they all got her name from myself, or a friend of a friend, or their brother-in-law's step-daughter's aunt… Mostly she just shows up with a cart load of toads though… That's all I know. I am sorry I can't be more help."

"Thank you anyway." I said stepping up to the till and putting the bracelet on the counter so I could pull some money out to pay.

The man eyed me as I did this. "Do you know what this is?" he asked.

"No, what is it?"

He was silent for a moment before appearing to come to some sort of decision and gently took the bracelet and clasped it around my wrist.

"It's protection." He whispered. "From all sorts of things… I have a feeling you've got a long road ahead of you, and you'll need all the help you can get. It'll be fifteen gold Wendells, and a kiss."

Wolf stiffened behind me at the request, but I smiled. "But it says thirty gold Wendells on the price tag…"

"So it does, but like I said, you've got some rough times ahead of you." He then tapped his cheek with one gnarled finger.

I handed over the money and bent over the counter to give the man a kiss on the cheek. Wolf was still glaring suspiciously at the man when I stepped away from the till towards the door.

"Good luck to you." The old man called after as we exited.

"Well now what do we do?" Dad asked as we stepped into the sunlight once again.

I fiddled with my new bracelet and bit my lip in contemplation.

Jordana who had been oddly quiet since the old man had told us he couldn't help us finally found her voice again.

"We could go north." She said, and we all turned to look at her. "There's a library, in the 2nd Kingdom, it's said to hold all the wisdom of the Nine Kingdoms in its shelves! If Rosaleen has been around for as long as that man said, then she's probably a sorceress, and if so, then she'll be in one of the books. Maybe there will be an address as well."

"It's worth a shot." I said, when no one else said anything.

"There's no way we can walk there though." Wolf argued. "Not with Virginia in the state she's in."

I growled.

"And it's a lovely and perfectly wonderful state, but it's not terribly conducive to walking long distances…"

"So what should we do?" Dad asked.

"The Silver River runs north into the 2nd Kingdom." Wolf said, "I say we find a town on the river, and buy a boat."

And so we did.

The Silver River was the smaller of the pair that run through the 4th Kingdom. The larger being the Gold River, which Wolf, my father, Wendell, and I had travelled down on our last journey through the Kingdoms to find the travelling mirror. Honestly, the Silver River looks much the same as the Gold River, just a bit smaller.

The boat we rented was also much the same as the boat we'd travelled in before, small, and powered by a steam engine that huffed and puffed as it chugged along. The only real difference was swapping a royal golden retriever for a girl, and no one found a magic fish anywhere on board.

"We are here," Said Wolf, pointing to a spot on the map he'd laid out on one of the benches on the boat's deck. "And we're trying to get: here." He pointed to another spot, marked by what appeared to be a city with many high towers. "The sooner, the better. If we don't stop, and move as fast as we can, it would take oh… three to five days? But that would mean running the engine constantly and not stopping to sleep, eat, anything."

"I don't think we can do that." Dad stated.

"Why not?" I asked. "Besides not sleeping or eating…"

"We don't have enough wood to feed the fire for the engine, well, unless we start burning bits of the boat, but I'm sure we can all see why that's not a good idea."

"Yeah, let's not do that."

"But going slower means we're making more frequent stops along the way, for food."

"And that would mean running into more people…" Wolf said. "Anyone might recognize you Tony, or you Jordana, or even the two of us. We can't risk the news getting out that Wendell has gone missing, again, we can't even risk rumors. There are too many ready and willing to claim his throne."

"What if we only went into any villages at night?" Jordana asked, chewing her lip.

"Then all the shops we need to buy things from will be closed." Wolf replied.

"Oh yeah…" She conceded. "Then what are we going to do?"

Wolf scratched at his head. "I think the best thing for us to do would be to let the engine rest at night, just let the river carry us along towards the 2nd Kingdom, but go full steam during the day. We'll still have to make those stops but if we plan right and possibly don disguises, we should be ok…"

"Wolf," Jordana said, hesitantly. "It's the full moon in three nights…"

"I know that, I can feel it." He replied. "You can let me off into the forest that night and drop anchor out in the middle of the river then pick me up in the morning when it's safe."

Something twisted in my gut at the memory of Wolf's state during the full moon, it had been somewhat more manageable in my world, but here it had a strong pull on him.

"Right, well that sounds to me like we have a plan." Dad said, clapping his hands together cheerfully. "How long would that take us to get to the Great Library?"

"No more than a week, maybe less if we make good time." Wolf replied.

"Then that's the pace we'll have to use." Jordana stated, "Let's hope that Wendell will be alright in the mean time."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Firstly, a huge THANK YOU to anyone who has stayed with this story for so long. I've finally figured out what I want to do with it which means more frequent updates (yay!), and you can thank Syfy's rendition of Alice for rekindling my love for the Tenth Kingdom (don't ask, it's a long and convoluted story), and getting my re-interested in writing this fic again. Well, more specifically you can thank some of the authors of some of the amazing fic for Alice, for getting me interested in writing this story again. So, hopefully it won't be too long (and certainly won't be AS long) before I get the next chapter out, though I am currently at uni, so I'll aim for getting it out by next week. Again, huge thank you for all of the reviews, and for your loyalty.

And remember, reviews are love, please review. I'd love to hear your feedback; it gives me incentive to keep going, quite similar to cookies.


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: This has actually been finished for about a month and a half now… I just never got around to typing it up… sorry.

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Chapter 5: The Silverton Town Festival

One night on the river I sat out on deck and stared up at the stars. It was one of the things I loved most about the nine kingdoms, how clear the skies were, and how many stars could be seen because of it. The bright lights of New York City bleached out the sky so much that only the brightest were visible but here… I felt like I could see the whole universe.

I was wrapped in my coat and a thick woolen blanket against the chill in the night air, it was the cusp of spring time but the nights were still cold, and part of my longed for the warmth of Wolf's embrace. He made a wonderful portable heater, radiating warmth like a furnace. I'd taken advantage of this during Wolf's first New Year's Eve in New York, cuddled up to him for heat in the cold air of Time Square. Wolf had been dazzled by the bright lights and by the sheer multitude of people. Eventually though his animal side had grown edgy with the crowd, and we left before the ball had dropped in favor of watching it on television from the calm of our apartment.

I sighed without realizing it, and Wolf's voice cut through the quiet of my personal reflection.

"What ya thinking about?" he asked, settling himself next to me on the deck.

I jumped.

"Sorry." He said, sheepishly.

"Just the stars and how we can't see them half as well back home." I said, answering his question.

We were silent for a time, but eventually he broke it.

"I never cheated on you, Virginia. I would never."

I sighed. "I know I don't know how I could have believed you had."

Another thing I had spent time thinking about had been Wolf's supposed infidelity, and the more I had thought about it, the more I realized how absolutely absurd it was. The love and devotion I saw in him every time I looked in his eyes nearly broke my heart. I knew I loved him, but I also knew that I could never match his level of adoration, much as I wanted to, and it scared the crap out of me sometimes. So when I suspected that he had cheated on me I almost felt relieved, because it would prove Wolf to be just like every other guy I'd ever dated after all. That would have been fine, I was used to that, I would have moved on, but unconditional love was not something I was used t. It used to be that I could only get a declaration of love during the heat of passion, or when they wanted something from me. But with Wolf… he gave it so freely, and asked only that I love him in return. It was refreshing, it was terrifying, it was amazing. Love, real love, true love, I had it, and I had almost thrown it away because even after all we had been through I was still scare to give my heart to him completely.

"Can you forgive me?" I asked, and I realized that I wanted that more than anything. Losing him would all but kill me, and as much as it terrified me how depended I'd become on him, it was thrilling as well; I'd fallen, and he'd done exactly what he'd promised, and caught me.

He cupped my cheek. "There's nothing to forgive. Rosaleen wanted to tear us apart, so she preyed on your insecurities to get to us… but it didn't work, we're still together, and I'm never giving you up!"

I felt tears burn at my eyes and he pulled me into a hug.

'Stupid hormones.' I grumbled to myself.

"I don't deserve you." I said, into his shirt.

"Huff puff!" he cried. "That's completely untrue! You deserve the whole world, and I'd give it to you if I could, Virginia!"

I hummed contentedly, deciding not to press the issue. "How about a cuddle?" I asked.

Wolf grinned and adjusted the cocoon I'd made with my blanket so that I sat with my back against his chest, his arms around me, and the blanket around the both of us.

"Better?" he asked.

"Much, thank you." I kissed his cheek and was lulled into a doze by the warmth of Wolf and the rocking of our little boat.

"We're going to have to stop soon." Wolf said, pulling me out of my doze. "We're almost out of firewood and food." He explained.

I looked up and caught sight of a waxing gibbous moon through the trees.

"Full moon is in a couple of days as well…" I said.

Wolf's arms shifted protectively, as if he could protect me from the moon, and more importantly from himself.

"We'll put ashore when it's time, and I'll follow you downstream through the woods by foot on that night… less chance of trouble that way."

"What if you meet a traveler?" I asked.

Wolf was silent for a moment. "Then I'll control myself…" he answered with a resigned sigh.

We fell silent again and Wolf's hand clasped mine protectively over the baby growing inside me and suddenly I felt something like feathers tickling me from the inside.

I let out a gasp.

"Virginia? What is it?" Wolf asked.

Tears were forming in my eyes again and I pressed Wolf's hand into my belly.

"The baby!" I said, "I could feel it!"

Wolf stared at me in wonder, and he broke into a grin when he felt a particularly vicious kick against his palm, just barely there, but he felt it all the same.

"Virginia, you are amazing!" he gushed at me.

"Couldn't have done it without you!" I laughed.

"Hello, little one!" Wolf spoke to my belly. "We can't wait to meet you!"

I grinned at him, and settled back into his arms. I woke the next morning in the same place I had fallen asleep, out on deck in the safety of Wolf's arms, the smell of frying eggs and bacon wafting up from the small galley below deck. Wolf was awake a few moments later his nostrils twitching at the enticing scent of bacon, and we clambered back below deck to get our breakfast.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few days into our voyage down the river we ran out of wood for the engine (as predicted) and were forced to dock at a small village on the banks of the river.

The village looked to be a small fishing town with extensive docks and lots of little boats moored up alongside, but there seemed to be very few people around for a town that theoretically relied on the river for their livelihood.

As we pulled up to dock, a man in a dapper hat of woven straw and disheveled clothes stepped up to greet us.

"A'right my lovers?" he asked in a suspiciously Cornish accent.

"Hey!" My father called as he tossed the forward line to the man for him to tie off. "Where is everybody?"

"Oh, they're in the town square." The man replied in his lyrical accent. "It's festival day, lots of stands and shops open and the like. Big parade with lots of pomp and circumstance…"

"Oh!" Jordana cried out in delight. "Of course, it's Wendell's birthday! It's celebrated as a national holiday!"

"Er… well you see," corrected the man as he tied off the aft line. "It's also the anniversary of the town's founding… so we don't actually celebrate King Wendell's birthday as such…"

"Oh." Jordana sighed, slightly put out.

"Right, well it's ok if we leave our boat here for the time being, while we buy some supplies in town?" Dad asked.

"Oh, sure enough." The man replied. "I'm here on guard duty, guardin' the boats and all, so your little vessel's safe as houses."

"Guarding them from what?" I asked.

"Er… not rightly sure my lover, but I'll know it if I see it sure enough."

"Right…"

We were all about the head into town when the man stopped us again.

"Oh! I almost forgot! There's something important I should tell you…" the man trailed off.

We waited.

"Hey, buddy we're kind of in a hurry." Wolf prompted impatiently. Tonight was the full moon and he was anxious to be as far from civilization as possible before moonrise.

"You know, I've gone and forgotten what is was I was going to tell you." The man admitted.

"Well, if you remember, come and find us." Dad said, and we were off once again.

The sounds of the festival guided us into the central square and main street of the town. The first thing we noticed was that everyone was wearing bright green outfits.

"I think we're not properly dressed." Wolf mentioned, uncomfortably.

"Let's just get what we need, and then we can go." I said, rubbing my hand over my baby bump in an effort to soothe my own nerves.

As we walked down the main street towards the town square we noticed that all the vendors and people we passed were looking at us with suspicious and even angry expressions. I tried smiling back at them, but it only deepened their scowls.

"Why are they staring at us?" I whispered to Jordana.

She shrugged, "Maybe cause we're not dressed like them?"

Dad stepped up to vendor selling bread and other baked goods, but when he tried to buy something the man made a few gestures with his hands and ignored us.

Dad turned to Jordana and Wolf and asked:

"What was that all about?"

Jordana looked puzzled.

"Well, he just made a hand gesture that's supposed to ward off bad luck… Have any of you broken a magic mirror recently?"

We all shook our heads.

"Is my tail hanging out?" Wolf asked, and started to turn in circles trying to see the seat of his pants.

"No, Wolf, you're tucked in." I said, putting my hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"So then what –" Dad was cut off by a booming voice crying out.

"Blasphemy! Blasphemers! Heathens! _Heretics!_" The voice cried and everyone on the street turned to look at an old man dressed entirely in emerald green robes, who was pointing directly at us.

"Infidels!" The man cried again. "Not only do they not wear the sacred colour on the appointed day of Silverton's founding, but that one wears the forbidden colour of our rivals, Silvermont!"

The man pointed at me dramatically, and I looked down at myself. Hiking boots, black leggings, blue coat, blue skirt, and pink-and-purple floral blouse.

"Oh dear…" Jordana said.

"What's wrong with my clothes?" I asked, and the town who by this time were all crowded around staring, let out a collective gasp.

"What's wrong with them!" The man asked. "You're wearing _purple_! Purple is the forbidden colour!"

"And I don't suppose the punishment for wearing the forbidden colour is a fine and a slap on the wrist?" Dad asked.

"It's _death_!" The man declared.

"Death?" I cried.

"Oh cripes!" Wolf exclaimed.

Dad rolled his eyes. "What _is_ it with you people?"

"Time to go!" Jordana said, changing into a little yellow bird and flying off in the direction of the boats.

"Run!" Wolf said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me along behind him.

We ran as fast as we could through the maze of streets and alleys that made up the town, all the while the sounds of the angry mob followed us, and soon we were hopelessly lost.

We stopped briefly to catch our breath in an alley, and watched as the crowd ran past.

"Ok," dad said, in between gasps for breath. "You stay here for a minute, I'll lead them away."

"What? Dad, are you crazy? You heard what they said, they'll kill you!"

"I'm not wearing purple, maybe I can reason with them and get away."

"Tony, do you really think that you'll be able to reason with a mob of religious fanatics?" Wolf said.

"…Good point. Change of plan, I'll sneak to the boat and get ready to go, you two, stay here and sneak out of town and we'll find you and pick you up."

"And what if you get caught?" I pointed out.

"Then come and rescue me!" And then he was gone.

"It's ok, Virginia," Wolf said, squeezing my hand. "Tony knows what he's doing."

I almost didn't hear him add. "I hope."

Wolf and I were almost out of town when the mob spotted us.

"Oh cripes!" Wolf exclaimed as they came after us.

Then he pushed me on ahead of him. "I'll distract them, run!"

"What? No!"

"Virginia, there's no time! Go!"

Suddenly someone caught me by my arm, I turned. It was Jordana.

"Come on Lady Virginia! You must!" she cried pulling me away from Wolf.

"No!" I cried.

Wolf took my hand. "Virginia, I'll be fine, now take care of our little cub and run!"

I nodded, and followed Jordana down another alleyway. We ran for several more blocks, and were so close to the river we could hear it lapping at the docks, when we hit a dead end. Jordana flew up and perched on the wooden fence blocking our escape.

"Lady Virginia, you must find a way over! Our boat is just there!" She said, excitedly.

"Ok." I said to myself, looking around for something I could stand on. There was nothing that would hold my weight so I tried to pull myself up by my arms, but I couldn't.

By this time the mob had found us and I was trapped. Jordana heard them and dropped onto the ground in front of me in her human form brandishing a stick like a weapon. I picked up a wooden plank next to me.

"You know how to fight?" I asked.

"Eh… not really." She admitted.

"Neither do I."

The group made it to the dead end and stopped a few feet from us, jeering at their cornered prey. Suddenly, there was an animalistic snarl and Wolf dropped into the alley from the roof tops above and three of the men at the front of the group broke his fall.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Jordana and I swung at the nearest men and kept on swinging blindly until they had all run off in search of reinforcements. Panting heavily, I noticed Wolf was on the ground, groaning in pain. I dropped my board and dropped to my knees beside him.

"Wolf!" I called, frantically.

"Ugh," he groaned, opening one eye. "Virginia… are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, the baby's fine. What about you, are you hurt?"

He just groaned.

"Sorry, can you walk?"

"Think so."

Jordana and I helped him to sit, and then to stand.

"Right, we need to get to the boat." He said.

"The fastest way is over that wall." Jordana replied.

"Think you can make it?" I asked.

Wolf shrugged. "Don't have much of a choice do I?"

Jordana perched at the top of the fence as a bird, and then changed back into a human.

"I'll help you." She said.

Grabbing my hand, she pulled me up onto the wall as Wolf knelt and made a cradle with his hands to boost me further. When I was safely atop, Wolf jumped and caught the edge with his fingers and used his feet to lever himself up as best he could. With much grunting and groaning, he finally hauled himself up, and dropped to the ground below. He then held his arms out signaling for me to jump and he would catch me.

When all three of us were safely on the ground we dashed towards the docks wee we could see that dad had already started up the engine and all we had to do was cast off. The young fisherman greeted us at the dock.

"I've remembered what it was I was supposed to tell you!" he exclaimed.

"That's great." Wolf growled as he hastily unwound the mooring lines from the dock. "But we're a bit busy at the moment."

"Yes, but this is important." He insisted. "Today is the founding festival day! If you're not wearing the right colour and more importantly if you're wearing the wrong colour, a flash-mob will be formed and you'll be put to death."

"And you forgot that minor little detail?" Wolf cried, in frustration.

"Oh aye, I forget minor details like that all the time… I must confess I'm not actually guarding the docks from anything; the people in town don't like me so much because of my awful memory… I've been hanging around the boats hoping that someone would take me with them on the river, somewhere I could useful. You don't think you could take me with you, do you?"

By this time the mob had found us at the docks and was quickly closing the distance.

"Well, do you think I could come?" The fisherman asked.

Wolf had finished untying the boat and snapped:

"If you can get on the boat in the next three seconds you can come."

"Oh, you won't regret it, my friend! You won't regret it!" the man cried happily, clambering onto the boat.

"Actually, I think I might." Wolf sighed.

"What's he doing here?" Dad asked when the two men appeared at the back of the boat.

"I'll explain later, just go!"

With that Dad opened the motor up to full speed and Wolf shoved as much wood into the furnace as he could. The fisherman was standing on the prow of the ship shouting taunts at the mob on shore, he nearly tripped over the side as the river's current made us rock. Jordana and I stayed low in the cockpit where Dad steered us out into the fast currents.

Apparently whatever religious fervor the town felt did not extend to chasing heathens downriver when there was a perfectly good festival to get back to, because eventually only the emerald garbed priest was left on the riverbank, shouting curses at us as we drifted further and further away.

When the coast was clear, Dad shut down the engine and let us drift as we decided what to do next.

"Moonrise is in a few hours." Wolf said, anxiously, "I need to get off the boat."

"Right, fisher-er… what is your name?" Dad asked the newest member of our group.

"Finn Stevenson." The man replied.

"Right, Finn, any idea where the nearest town is?"

Finn looked very pleased to be of help to us. "Oh sure enough, Silvermont is a few hours away by boat."

"Silvermont, isn't that the rival town of the crazy people back there?" I asked.

"Sure enough, but as long as it's not festival day there shouldn't be any problem."

"And is it festival day?" Wolf asked.

"Wouldn't rightly know, would I? I've lived in Silverton all me life."

"Should we chance it?" I asked.

"We don't have much choice, we need supplies." Dad replied. "We can let Wolf off here and you can meet us in Silvermont tomorrow after you've got all… that Wolf stuff out of your system."

Wolf nodded, relieved at the prospect of getting off the river and into the woods by nightfall.

"We'll continue into Silvermont, stay in an inn for the night, and regroup in the morning. Plan?"

We all agreed and Dad steered ashore to let Wolf off into the woods, and to gather a bit of firewood for the engine, just enough to get us to town.

"You sure you'll be alright?" I asked Wolf for the fourth or fifth time.

"Yes, Virginia." Wolf seemed amused by my concern. "I'd done this hundreds of times before I met you!"

"I know but, we've been away for so long…"

Wolf clasped my hands in his and brought them to his lips.

"I'm not the one I'm worried about." He confessed, and his eyes flashed gold.

I shivered.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He said, pulling away.

"You're sure you can find us?"

"Virginia, I could follow your scent across time itself!" he declared grandly, repeating a phrase from so long ago, and then with a scratch of his head, he disappeared into the woods eager to be away.

We cast off again soon after, and it wasn't long before we reached Silvermont. (It wasn't festival day.) We found a cozy looking inn to check into for the night. Jordana and I were given a large room with a comfy looking bed and a copper tub in the corner. Finn and Dad were given the room across the hall.

After supper and taking turns in the bath, Jordana and I changed into the nightgowns lent to us by the kind woman who ran the inn, and started to get ready for bed.

"So you and Wolf have reconciled?" Jordana asked, shyly.

I looked away from the window through which I had been staring absently.

"Sorry?"

"It's just… you seemed less tense around each other today. Well, except for Wolf's… condition. So I was wondering if you two had made up. Not that it's any of my business." She added quickly.

"No, it's alright." I said. "Yes, we have. I don't know how I could have thought he'd betray me."

"Well… you have been hurt before, yes?" Jordana asked, thoughtfully.

"Well, yes, but I should have known that with Wolf it was impossible."

Jordana shrugged. "Old habits die hard. It does not mean you don't trust him. It's just that you are so used to a certain kind of treatment that it's hard for you _not_ to think like that. I am sure Wolf understands."

I smiled at her, and mulled over what she had said before something occurred to me.

"You've seemed sad today." I said. "Is something wrong?"

Jordanna looked startled, and shrugged. "It's Wendell's birthday, I miss him, I suppose."

I studied the look on her face.

"You're in love with him, aren't you?"

She really looked startled this time.

"Of course not!" She gasped. "Who told you that?"

I laughed. "Don't worry, you're secret's safe with me, but no one told me, it's plain to see on your face when you think about him."

Jordana groaned and folded over, planting her face in the quilt on her bed.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"He's a king!" she stated, as if it explained everything.

"And?" I prompted.

"And I'm… well, no one knows what I am. I was found by the court jester, and then bought off of him by Snow White. So that would make me a slave in some places. But then she freed me, so I'm a peasant. But I grew up at court as Wendell's playmate, so I am a courtier, without noble birth… I am not a suitable match for a king, no matter which way you look at it…"

"Well, first of all who's to say you're not noble? Like you said yourself, no one knows! Second, you live in the lands of Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty!"

"Who?"

"Sleeping Beauty, you know, pricked her finger on a spinning wheel; fell into a hundred-year coma?"

Jordana still looked confused.

"It's not important; the point is you live in a land where commoners become queens every day! Does Wendell love you?"

Jordana looked uncomfortable.

"I'm not sure…" she admitted, "Sometimes I thought he might, but… he's a king and doesn't have much free time anymore."

"But when he does?" I prompted.

Jordana shrugged. "He makes time for me, I suppose. We will go for walks in the garden, or riding. He asks for my opinion in council meetings on affairs of state, and on whether or not his stockings match." Jordana laughed.

"See! He cares about what you think! And he makes an effort to see you when he could be doing something else! He must care about you."

Jordana blushed. "Maybe."

I hugged her reassuringly. "When we get him back you should ask him about it. That way if he says yes, you finally have an answer."

"And if he says no?"

"Then you can move on with your life, and never trouble yourself with Wendell again!"

Jordana sighed. "Let's just get him back first…"

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A/N: Right, thanks for reading, please review, reviews are cookies!


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: Well, that took much longer than I had previously anticipated… Real life is a pain. Remembering what tense to write this in was an interesting adventure. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with it, I promise I will not abandon this story, even if it does seem like it sometimes.

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Chapter 6: The Great Library

Wolf had easily tracked us down river and into the small village by day break. He was stuffing himself on, what looked to me like, a full English breakfast when Jordana and I groggily made our way down-stairs into the tavern of the inn. Dad was carefully ignoring the impolite sounds of Wolf eating while contemplating the daily newspaper with a cup of coffee, while Finn simply stared in something akin to awe as the eggs, bacon, toast, fried mushrooms and sausage links disappeared into Wolf's bottomless stomach.

"At long last, my love!" Wolf cried dramatically when he caught sight of me. I smiled and cast a quick glance around the room to see that everyone in the inn had turned to stare at Wolf's loud declaration. I felt my cheeks start to burn a little and quickly sat down and ducked my head out of view.

"Now then, what would you like to eat?" Wolf asked, and I was reminded of the feast thrown in our honor after our last adventure, the one during which I had been served the fish that had eaten Wolf's engagement ring. "Breakfast is after all, the most important meal of the day!"

I hastily looked around the table to what everyone else was eating. My dad had some scrambled eggs with toast and a side of bacon.

"I'll have that." I said and Wolf jumped up to place my order.

"So what's the plan for today?" I asked my father.

"Buy some more supplies, and then continue down river; with any luck we'll be to the library tomorrow morning."

By this time Wolf had returned and had become somewhat subdued by my presence. I reached my hand over and squeezed his knee under the table.

"Are you ok?" I asked, and Wolf nodded before taking my hand in his own and kissing the back of it. My hand stayed in his all throughout breakfast, which was used mainly to bring Finn up to speed as to our mission to the Great Library and exactly what it all meant in the grand scheme of things. Finn, being not so much forgetful as easily distracted, stopped the story several times to ask about the details of something that had already been mentioned. By the end of it, my dad was about ready to tear his hair out in frustration, Wolf was growling under his breath, Jordana had excused herself under the pretense of repacking our things, and I had my head rested on the table in exasperation. A silent vow was made between the three of us remaining to ditch Finn at the soonest possible moment.

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The next day, we docked in the small city where the Great Library was located in the Second Kingdom. Our little vessel attracted very little attention, as no one outside of the Fourth Kingdom could be expected to recognize our faces; but we would still be employing the use of false names. Finn had been almost hysterical when he'd learned who we really were.

It was easy enough to figure out where we wanted to go. The royal palace of Gretel the Great sat on a hill to the north, but aside from that there was only one building in the vicinity that could possibly be the one we wanted. The library was massive, visible from all points in the city. I can only compare it to it being roughly the same size as the Metropolitan Museum of Art back home in New York. It was just as ornately decorated as well. Once inside, stacks and stacks of books reaching up to the ceiling made a labyrinth of information, with bindings and tags in nearly every color of the rainbow.

"So what do we expect to find here, exactly?" Dad asked.

"Anything useful." Jordana replied, leading us through the stacks as if she knew where she was headed.

"Oh yes, that's specific." He quipped. "_How_ do we expect to find anything in here? It's massive!"

Jordana rolled her eyes. "We'll use the library's index to find any books or papers that might lead us to the Lady Rosaleen. Now, everybody choose a topic to research."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Key words," she explained, "Each of us could take a couple key words that might lead us back to Rosaleen."

"Ok… I'll start with frog merchants?" I suggested.

"Very good, then I'll look up lists of sorceresses in the Nine Kingdoms, anyone who attempts to learn magic must be registered with the Sorcerer's Guild. Even if she's not working with them now, it will tell us more about her." Jordana said.

My father shrugged. "I'll look for any Rosaleens. If she's caused any problems before there might have been a newspaper article about it."

"Then I'll look for any unsolved magical occurrences." Finn piped up and we all turned to stare at him in shock.

"I'm forgetful, not stupid." He said defensively.

"I'll go with Virginia." Wolf said bouncing over to my side, now that we were a step closer to finding our queries my thoughts turned back to the love letter that had arrived at our apartment. I'd have to ask him about that later, it was still something we needed to talk about, and if it was true that it was a set-up, then I had an apology to make.

"Very well." Jordana said with a nod, "Shall we meet back here in an hour and share what we've found? Yes? Good."

With that, we all parted ways and immediately lost ourselves among the stacks.

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About an hour later, Wolf and I flipped through the index slips and various tomes without much luck at all. A Rosaleen was mentioned once in a list of frog providers, but she was also listed as having been in operation almost seventy years ago; which meant that it had to have been a coincidence. I jotted down the information about her whereabouts on a slip of paper nonetheless, given that we hadn't really found anything else.

I reached the end of my patience for research long before Wolf did, so I sat staring at him from across one of the many reading tables that were scattered throughout the library. He was mumbling as he read, his brow creased in concentration, and every once in a while he would reach up with one hand and paw at his temple like a dog (or a wolf) scratching its head. This is a common scene when Wolf is completely focused on something, but even so I stopped to inspect him, finding that I hadn't done so quite as frequently as I probably should have been.

Eventually I worked up the courage to breach a topic that was still nagging me after Jordana had brought it up the previous evening, but I still hesitated before finally opening my mouth to break his concentration.

"Wolf?" I said, softly. I could barely hear my own voice, but Wolf's supernatural hearing picked it up right away.

"Hmm?" He responded in a distracted way, not looking up from the book he was reading.

"Can we talk?" I continued a bit louder. This grabbed Wolf's attention fully, and he turned away from the dusty pages to inspect my face.

"Something wrong, my luscious lamb-chop?" He frowned and I could hardly stand it.

"I wanted to talk to you about the letter… the one from Rosaleen…" I was losing my courage fast, but I forced myself to stick with it.

Wolf's frown deepened. "I thought we already had talked about that." He said.

"I know but…"

"It's still bothering you?" He finished, and I nodded.

"Alright, what about it?" He asked.

"You… You were never… you and she…" I had to start several times before the words would present themselves. "You're happy, right? I mean – you're not _unhappy_… with me?"

Wolf, being Wolf, immediately saw the cause of my insecurity. "No!" He said quickly, "No, Virginia, of course not! I am _so_ happy with you. Deliriously happy! You and our little pup are all I've ever wanted… well… maybe not _all_ I've ever wanted, bacon's on that list too, and pastrami..."

I couldn't help but smile a little at Wolf's tangents.

"But that's beside the point!" He said, forcefully. "You and the little pup are my world, and I would never _ever_ do anything to ruin that!"

My eyes started to water and I had to wave my hand in front of my face in an attempt to play it cool. I tried to blame it on the hormones again, but Wolf stood up and walked around the table to kneel in front of me. With a big smile, he took my face between his hands and said: "I love you, so much."

"So the letter that Rosaleen sent to the apartment?"

"Lies. Every single word."

"Then how could I have believed her?"

Wolf frowned. "Well, to be honest, I am hurt that you did… I would have thought that I had proved to you that I am yours, and only yours for as long as you want me."

"I know!" I cried. "I should have trusted you, I should have known, I'm just so stupid when it comes to things like this!"

"No! No, Virginia! That's not what I meant!"

"But you're right though! I _should_ have known! I'm sorry, I promise it won't happen again! Just please don't leave, I couldn't stand it if you did!"

"Virginia, _stop_!" He cried.

I looked up at him in shock even though I could feel the tears burning in my eyes even worse than before.

"Huff puff!" Wolf sighed. "Virginia, I know that you've been hurt in the past. I _know_ you've still got all sorts of bruises from all the hurts you've had over the years. I understand that." He smiled at me. "I _understand_, and I'm not going to leave you just because sometimes something reopens all of those old wounds."

"You're not going to leave me?" I repeated, just needing to hear it again to reassure myself.

"No." He said. "I'm just going to try and remind you more often of how much you mean to me, and if that doesn't work then I'll just have to be there to nurse you back to health because I failed to catch you."

I sniffed. "So we're okay?" I asked.

"We were never not okay to begin with, but yes, we are most positively okay." He replied.

And what could I do? I laughed through my tears, and pressed a kiss to his lips, and suddenly I'm in his arms and still sobbing how sorry I am for doubting him, and us, and kissing him all the while, and he's whispering for me to shush and to stop being silly and how much he loves me and the baby. By this point he looked entirely too smug and out of principle I tried to pull away, but Wolf wasn't having it, so he just tightened his arms around my waist and we declared research a lost cause in favor of a nice long cuddle.

Fortunately by then Wolf and I had exhausted the records of frog merchants throughout the kingdoms with neither of us finding a thing. So either Rosaleen wasn't registered with the Union for Purveyors of Magical Animals, or her trade pre-dated the founding of that union almost one hundred years ago, which both Wolf and I thought was very unlikely. So we began to wind our way back through the stacks to the place where we had all parted ways and hoped that Jordana, Finn, or my Dad had had more success than us.

My dad and Finn had already assembled by the time we got there.

"Did you find anything?" Dad asked eagerly, I noticed that his hands were empty, but Finn was holding a large stack of papers.

"No." I said with a shrug. "Our Lady Rosaleen is not a known frog provider. How about you, did either of you find anything?"

My dad shook his head, but Finn looked fit to burst with pride and excitement.

"A 'right then, I took the liberty and compiled a compendium of unsolved magical occurrences over the past few years, specifically to do with kidnappings, Rosaleens, and frogs, and I found a very interesting pattern. Every five years or so, there is a travelling circus that performs in one village throughout each of the Nine Kingdoms, and directly after the circus' opening night several children from those villages will disappear. But before the townsfolk put two and two together the travelling circus is gone, and the children are never seen again."

"What's that got to do with anything?" I asked.

Finn raised a finger and flipped through his papers to one particular article. "This, my lovers, is a write-up of the circus for a local newspaper, and you might be interested in this passage here…"

He pointed with his finger, and Wolf and I leaned over the desk to take a closer look.

"I had the privilege to speak with the owner of the Cirque Du La Infanta; Lady Rosaleen of the 8th Kingdom…!" I read aloud from the text. This tugged eagerly at something in my memory and I fished around in my pocket for the scrap of paper I had copied down from one of the books.

"Well done, Finn!" Wolf cried happily, and grabbed the sides of his head to press an ecstatic kiss to his forehead.

Finn looked a little perturbed at this show of affection, but he ignored it and grinned happily, pleased to be of service to someone at last.

"Can sorceresses live for long periods of time?" I asked, comparing the information that I had written down to the article found by Finn.

"Well, yes, I suppose they can. They have got magic, after all." Finn replied.

"The Evil Queen who cursed Snow White lived for over a hundred years before your mother came to replace her Virginia." Wolf added.

"Then I think I may have found something. I got this address for a Rosaleen from the 8th Kingdom out of one of the books, but it said she was in business 70 years ago. I thought it wasn't possible, but if sorceresses can live for a really long time, then it might be the same person."

"So that means…" My dad prompted with an excited grin.

"That we know where to find her." Wolf finished.

"And Wendell!" I added, with a laugh. "Can we take those papers with us?"

"I don't see why not, just so long as we return them…. eventually." Finn looked uncomfortable. "I may lose them though, so I'd suggest someone else carry them."

A thought occurred to me. "Finn, how did you remember all of that information?"

Finn held out his hand sheepishly where I could see lines of black ink scrawled across his skin.

"Keeping notes helps me remember things…" He said in explanation.

I smiled at him. "That's wonderful."

The papers were then passed to my father, who put them in the backpack he carried with him. It was then that we realized someone was missing.

"Where's Jordana?" I asked, and we each looked around as if expecting her to appear from thin air.

Suddenly there was a shrill scream from somewhere amid the stacks, and we all knew exactly who had made it.

"Jordana!" We cried as we began to tear through the stacks, trying to locate her by the sound of her voice.

She screamed again, and there was a loud crash as a bookshelf fell from somewhere to our left, and suddenly a loud siren wailed and the entire building seemed to groan and shift. We had to stop in our tracks as the building shook. Grains of plaster rained down from the ceiling and there were a series of loud bangs almost like footsteps before a loud roar deafened us.

"What the hell was that!?" I cried.

Finn and Wolf looked at each other in confusion both fishing their brains for an answer with their mouths gaping open.

"Uhhhhh…" Wolf said. "The security system?"

"What?!" My dad cried.

"I'm not sure but… I heard rumors while I was in the Snow White Memorial Penitentiary that some of the other convicts were in there for trying to steal stuff from places with valuables inside that have had a wizard charm the building so that it can defend itself against anyone who wants to steal stuff, or maybe in this case; damage the books."

"What exactly does that entail?" Dad asked.

Wolf made a face. "Dragons, ogres, trolls… I dunno, could be almost anything."

The roar sounded again.

"Definitely a dragon." Wolf said, as we uncovered our ears.

It was then that Jordana came running down the corridor towards us, clutching a book to her chest in a death-grip and waving one arm at us frantically.

"Run!" She screamed. "Run!"

There were three men chasing her, dressed in dark clothing and carrying swords. Jordana was upon us in moments.

"Didn't you hear me? I said _run_, you lunk-heads!"

"Who are they?" Dad asked as she sped past.

"Does it matter? They're trying to kill me!"

Sure enough as the men drew closer we could hear them shouting:

"There they are!"

"Get them!"

"Bring them to Lady Rosaleen."

So we started to run, winding through the stacks, trying desperately to lose our pursuers but to keep track of each other, all the while we could hear the dragon coming nearer. It wasn't long before we had lost each other completely, whereas the men pursuing us had had no such trouble. What's more they seemed to have multiplied, three were following me alone, and in my pregnant state I was quickly tiring and slowing drastically.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed me roughly from behind and pulled me down to the ground. I screamed in surprise and kicked out in desperation. One of the men held my arms down and another held my feet, forcing them into shackles. A third leaned over me and forced a gag into my mouth, I continued to struggle and the third man hit me hard across the face. I saw stars, and heard him snarl, "Don't make this hard on yourself girlie; our orders are to bring you alive, but she didn't say anything about being in one piece."

I tried to kick at them again, and only succeeded in temporarily unseating the third thug restraining me.

"That's it!" He growled. "Legs are coming off!"

He raised his sword menacingly above his head but before he could cut me in half he was lifted into the air in the jaws of what I could only assume was the Library's security system. The other two men cried out in surprise and turned to look in horror at the enormous beast. It had bright orange eyes which burned with fury, and smoke curled out of its massive dripping jaws. Feeling thoroughly worthless I struggled with the shackles that had been attached to my ankles and wrists while the other two men attempted to fend off the dragon, and when they failed to do so they ran screaming off into the stacks. I breathed a sigh of relief when the dragon decided to follow the men instead of making me into a snack, and I went back to trying to free myself from the shackles.

"Here, let me help you with that." Came a voice from above me. I looked up to see a dark haired stranger wearing an outfit similar to those of the men who had captured me, save for the black mask the others had worn. I eyed him, and the sword in his hand, warily but he ignored me and set about unlocking the manacles. He had long dark hair that was pulled back in a pony-tail, and striking pale green eyes.

"There, that's better." He said when he finished, and offered me a hand up. I ignored it and struggled to my feet using the bookshelves nearby.

"Who are you?" I growled. "Why are you helping me?" I rubbed a hand over my stomach to calm the baby who was kicking frantically having sensed my anxiety not to mention having been rattled about when I'd been knocked to the ground.

The man cocked an eyebrow at me and stood in a relaxed position with one arm resting on the hilt of his sword. "Do I need a reason to help a damsel in distress?"

Just then Wolf came barreling through the stacks and he caught me up in a huge hug.

"Virginia! Oh, I was so worried! The rest of us made it to the boat but then we realized you weren't behind us I ran back here to find you! I thought you'd been captured." Then he caught scent of the other man.

"Who're you?" he growled.

"Wolf, this man was just helping me." I said putting my hand on Wolf's chest to calm him. Although it seemed to do anything but and I saw his shoulders tense and his eyes darken in preparation to protect me, but I wasn't having any more of the damsel-in-distress crap.

"Wolf, cool it." I huffed, then turned back to the mysterious stranger. "Look, thank you for what you did, but we have nothing to repay you with so, I'm sorry but we'll have to be on our way."

"I came here to help you." The man said, stepping in our path as we tried to walk away.

I stared at him, not really sure what he was getting at. "And you have. So please, we need to go now, my dad and friends are waiting for us…"

The man stepped in front of us as we tried to move again, and I could tell that Wolf was seething, his eyes flashing gold dangerously.

"I mean to say I am here to help you on your quest… to rescue Wendell." The stranger said.

Wolf and I glanced at each other. "What makes you think we're on a quest?" Wolf asked with his best salesman suave.

"I've been tracking your vessel since the Fourth Kingdom. You _are_ the Lady Virginia and Lord Wolfson are you not?" He asked, unimpressed.

"Well – um…" Said Wolf.

"What do you mean; you've been tracking us?" I asked.

The man looked frustrated. "Really, must we have this conversation now? We don't have much time before those men come back."

The roar sounded again.

"Or the dragon." He added.

"But we haven't harmed the books…" I said.

Wolf looked a bit sheepish. "I may have, um… Well, I may have 'enhanced' some of the portraits of the wizards in one of the books…"

"Wolf!" I scolded.

"I was bored, Virginia!" He cried.

I growled at Wolf and he cowered a bit. "Alright, let's get out of here, but when we get back to the boat you're telling us everything." I demanded, pointing my best accusatory finger at the stranger.

He nodded his consent, and the three of us ran towards the Library's exit and towards our friends who were waiting for us by the river.

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A/N: Sorry to leave off so abruptly; as I was writing this I realized that it just kept getting longer and longer and that I really didn't have enough substance for the next chapter. So I decided to take some of the final scenes from this chapter and use them at the beginning of the next. Leaves us with a lovely cliff-hanger, and means that I've got something more to work with for the next part.

Thank you to everyone who has been showing their support with all the lovely reviews I've received on the previous chapters. Please keep up the good work, believe it or not they really do encourage me to continue!


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